Matteo stood protectively in front of Alia, holding her safely out of the ss all while leading them both backwards and away. He didn’t want to make too big of a movent in case it attracted Annalise’s rabid attention.
However, he had severely underestimated Annalise’s arm strength and Aiden’s desire to live.
When Annalise clawed down, Aiden dodged, twisting his body back and forth in an attempt to avoid her nails. Yet, every ti he backed away, she ca forward to close the distance between them, and eventually, there was nowhere else for them to run.
Aiden’s back would’ve knocked into Alia if it weren’t for Matteo who stepped forward, using his body to form a human barricade. Unfortunately, because of that, the envelope that Matteo was holding was knocked out of his hands.
It flew out of Matteo’s hands and Alia sucked in a breath of cold air as it skidded on the floor, coming to a stop right in front of Annalise. It hadn’t been sealed properly, so the test results from earlier were spilled out.
And Annalise’s eyes landed on the words printed in red. They were etched there like a death sentence, big, bold, and jarringly obvious.
’Blood test results from both paternal and maternal subjects have shown to have biological sibling correlation.’
It wasn’t an official result, but more like a note written by the staff that was testing the blood samples and ca to this realization, hoping soone else with a higher clearance could handle this case. Nevertheless, it was the sa.
"What..." Annalise muttered, trailing off as she completely stopped her assaults.
Both Catherine and Aiden stopped their movents as well, their eyes following Annalise’s gaze to land on the paper. Catherine’s eyes widened with alarm while a profanity slipped from Aiden’s lips.
However, both of them were one step too slow. Before they could bend down to pick the paper up and prevent Annalise from seeing anything else, she had already swooped to the ground and picked the docunts from the floor. She held them with shaky hands, pulling the entire test result out from the envelope as her eyes poured through every sentence.
"Oh no..." Alia muttered under her breath, and she and Matteo shared a look of worry.
"Annalise," Catherine started to say, her heels clicking softly as she ca forward, "I am sure there must be a mistake sowhere―"
"Mistake?" Annalise slowly asked, scoffing as she coldly laughed. "You don’t even know what this envelope contains. So what do you know about what mistakes this might have?"
"I―"
"There is no mistake," Annalise continued. There were beads of tears in the wells of Annalise’s eyes. However, if the redness of her face was anything to look at, it was evident that those tears were born from anger and not sadness. "This is the test result to show Aiden’s paternal relation to the child Emline is carrying."
She looked at the paper again, and this ti, Aiden tried to snatch it. However, he was still too slow compared to the smaller woman. She ducked and dodged from his reach, easily evading him.
"Biological sibling correlation!" Annalise echoed, shaking her head as she laughed at the insanity of it all. "What nonsense is this?"
She hadn’t thought about it carefully back in the ward, but now it made sense! The way the doctor’s face blanched when she read out the test results, the way she all but dashed from the room claiming there must be sothing wrong sowhere.
Aiden snatched the docunts away right when Annalise wasn’t paying attention, but it was too late. The damage had been done. She had already seen the results.
"Just like the doctor said, there must be sothing wrong with the test results," Aiden said.
He clenched his jaw tightly, shoving the papers back into the envelope, not caring if it crumpled in the process. He would shred them all right now with his teeth if he could. Maybe he should.
No one should’ve seen the test results, and if he wouldn’t be sent to jail for manslaughter, he would’ve already silenced the staff mbers in charge of this test.
"Yes..." Annalise trailed off. "Yes... Yes!" Suddenly, she lit up again, her eyes filled with an insane glint. "Tell ― who did you bribe to fake the test results? There has to be soone that you brought in!"
"It’s cross-contamination," Aiden said. "You heard it, didn’t you? That was what the doctor said before you rushed over, screaming bloody murder!"
Whatever magic Aiden put into his words, it worked. Annalise was imdiately convinced, nodding her head along with whatever Aiden said.
"Have you no heart, Aiden Montgory?!" Annalise yelled, just one short of reaching forward to strangle Aiden herself. "She has already agreed to go for an abortion― why must you fra her of such a... a... disgusting act too?!"
"Fra her―" Aiden spluttered, appalled. "Excuse you! Did you not hear a thing I just said?"
"You faked her test results, that’s what you did!" Annalise continued. "Her na and reputation is completely ruined now and it’s all because of you! What if this leaks out to the world?" She glared hard at Catherine. "I bet that’s your plan all along! To get rid of Emline and !"
"Annalise, that’s untrue―" Catherine tried to say but was quickly cut off.
"You’re such a fucking bitch, Catherine Laine!" Annalise hissed, quickly drawing the attention of the nearby nurses and doctors.
They had avoided this corridor after they heard of what was happening, but the ongoing commotion was starting to disturb the other patients in nearby wards. Left with no choice, so of them were dispatched to co maintain so order, only to be greeted by a red-faced Annalise, who now resembled a walking tomato.
"So godmother you are!" Annalise continued. "I’ll kill you!"
With a battle cry, Annalise suddenly charged forward and held out her hands, going straight for Catherine’s throat. Catherine’s eyes widened as she stepped back, but she wasn’t fast enough to get away from Annalise’s hands. In no ti, Annalise had her fingers wrapped around Catherine’s neck, while Matteo, Aiden, and Alia all gasped in horror.
"Mom!" Aiden yelled, sprinting forward to co help his mother.
However, there was no need.
In a blink of an eye, Annalise was torn away from Catherine and tossed to the ground, collapsing in a heap. She landed right by Aiden’s feet, who abruptly stopped in his tracks when he noticed the new addition to the crowd.
A man firmly held onto Catherine, his touch gentle but strong, and in a low voice, he said, "Are you alright?"
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